How do power plants “know” the exact amount of energy that is in demand at a current moment by the millions of consumers within its distribution network since they must produce near this amount of energy (either too much or too little energy being pumped into the grid in comparison to the energy demand has negative consequences, if I understand correctly?)
Is there some sort of signaling system that can tell how much power is being drawn at a exact moment or will be drawn one second/minute into the future?
What happens if too much energy is produced at a current moment compared to the demand?
In: 12
They guess when more will be needed based on known events. For example half time in a popular football match is cause to ramp up power generation since everybody will get up to make a cup of tea. At night they increase when everybody starts to turn on the lights to see and decrease when everybody turns them off to go to bed. Changing the amount of power produced takes too long to react in real time.
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